1.
Atmosphere of Earth
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The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, commonly known as air, that surrounds the planet Earth and is retained by Earths gravity. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by absorbing solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention. By volume, dry air contains 78. 09% nitrogen,20. 95% oxygen,0. 93% argon,0. 04% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases. Air also contains an amount of water vapor, on average around 1% at sea level. The atmosphere has a mass of about 5. 15×1018 kg, the atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner with increasing altitude, with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space. The Kármán line, at 100 km, or 1. 57% of Earths radius, is used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space. Atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft at an altitude of around 120 km, several layers can be distinguished in the atmosphere, based on characteristics such as temperature and composition. The study of Earths atmosphere and its processes is called atmospheric science, early pioneers in the field include Léon Teisserenc de Bort and Richard Assmann. The three major constituents of air, and therefore of Earths atmosphere, are nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor accounts for roughly 0. 25% of the atmosphere by mass. The remaining gases are often referred to as gases, among which are the greenhouse gases, principally carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide. Filtered air includes trace amounts of other chemical compounds. Various industrial pollutants also may be present as gases or aerosols, such as chlorine, fluorine compounds, sulfur compounds such as hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide may be derived from natural sources or from industrial air pollution. In general, air pressure and density decrease with altitude in the atmosphere, however, temperature has a more complicated profile with altitude, and may remain relatively constant or even increase with altitude in some regions. In this way, Earths atmosphere can be divided into five main layers, excluding the exosphere, Earth has four primary layers, which are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere. It extends from the exobase, which is located at the top of the thermosphere at an altitude of about 700 km above sea level, to about 10,000 km where it merges into the solar wind. This layer is composed of extremely low densities of hydrogen, helium and several heavier molecules including nitrogen, oxygen. The atoms and molecules are so far apart that they can travel hundreds of kilometers without colliding with one another, thus, the exosphere no longer behaves like a gas, and the particles constantly escape into space. These free-moving particles follow ballistic trajectories and may migrate in and out of the magnetosphere or the solar wind, the exosphere is located too far above Earth for any meteorological phenomena to be possible
2.
Gas
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Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter. A pure gas may be made up of atoms, elemental molecules made from one type of atom. A gas mixture would contain a variety of pure gases much like the air, what distinguishes a gas from liquids and solids is the vast separation of the individual gas particles. This separation usually makes a colorless gas invisible to the human observer, the interaction of gas particles in the presence of electric and gravitational fields are considered negligible as indicated by the constant velocity vectors in the image. One type of commonly known gas is steam, the gaseous state of matter is found between the liquid and plasma states, the latter of which provides the upper temperature boundary for gases. Bounding the lower end of the temperature scale lie degenerative quantum gases which are gaining increasing attention, high-density atomic gases super cooled to incredibly low temperatures are classified by their statistical behavior as either a Bose gas or a Fermi gas. For a comprehensive listing of these states of matter see list of states of matter. The only chemical elements which are stable multi atom homonuclear molecules at temperature and pressure, are hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. These gases, when grouped together with the noble gases. Alternatively they are known as molecular gases to distinguish them from molecules that are also chemical compounds. The word gas is a neologism first used by the early 17th-century Flemish chemist J. B. van Helmont, according to Paracelsuss terminology, chaos meant something like ultra-rarefied water. An alternative story is that Van Helmonts word is corrupted from gahst and these four characteristics were repeatedly observed by scientists such as Robert Boyle, Jacques Charles, John Dalton, Joseph Gay-Lussac and Amedeo Avogadro for a variety of gases in various settings. Their detailed studies ultimately led to a relationship among these properties expressed by the ideal gas law. Gas particles are separated from one another, and consequently have weaker intermolecular bonds than liquids or solids. These intermolecular forces result from interactions between gas particles. Like-charged areas of different gas particles repel, while oppositely charged regions of different gas particles attract one another, transient, randomly induced charges exist across non-polar covalent bonds of molecules and electrostatic interactions caused by them are referred to as Van der Waals forces. The interaction of these forces varies within a substance which determines many of the physical properties unique to each gas. A comparison of boiling points for compounds formed by ionic and covalent bonds leads us to this conclusion, the drifting smoke particles in the image provides some insight into low pressure gas behavior
3.
Planet
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The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, astrology, science, mythology, and religion. Several planets in the Solar System can be seen with the naked eye and these were regarded by many early cultures as divine, or as emissaries of deities. As scientific knowledge advanced, human perception of the planets changed, in 2006, the International Astronomical Union officially adopted a resolution defining planets within the Solar System. This definition is controversial because it excludes many objects of mass based on where or what they orbit. The planets were thought by Ptolemy to orbit Earth in deferent, at about the same time, by careful analysis of pre-telescopic observation data collected by Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler found the planets orbits were not circular but elliptical. As observational tools improved, astronomers saw that, like Earth, the planets rotated around tilted axes, and some shared such features as ice caps and seasons. Since the dawn of the Space Age, close observation by space probes has found that Earth and the planets share characteristics such as volcanism, hurricanes, tectonics. Planets are generally divided into two types, large low-density giant planets, and smaller rocky terrestrials. Under IAU definitions, there are eight planets in the Solar System, in order of increasing distance from the Sun, they are the four terrestrials, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, then the four giant planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Six of the planets are orbited by one or more natural satellites, several thousands of planets around other stars have been discovered in the Milky Way. e. in the habitable zone. On December 20,2011, the Kepler Space Telescope team reported the discovery of the first Earth-sized extrasolar planets, Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, orbiting a Sun-like star, Kepler-20. A2012 study, analyzing gravitational microlensing data, estimates an average of at least 1.6 bound planets for every star in the Milky Way, around one in five Sun-like stars is thought to have an Earth-sized planet in its habitable zone. The idea of planets has evolved over its history, from the lights of antiquity to the earthly objects of the scientific age. The concept has expanded to include not only in the Solar System. The ambiguities inherent in defining planets have led to much scientific controversy, the five classical planets, being visible to the naked eye, have been known since ancient times and have had a significant impact on mythology, religious cosmology, and ancient astronomy. In ancient times, astronomers noted how certain lights moved across the sky, as opposed to the fixed stars, ancient Greeks called these lights πλάνητες ἀστέρες or simply πλανῆται, from which todays word planet was derived. In ancient Greece, China, Babylon, and indeed all pre-modern civilizations, it was almost universally believed that Earth was the center of the Universe and that all the planets circled Earth. The first civilization known to have a theory of the planets were the Babylonians
4.
Solid
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Solid is one of the four fundamental states of matter. It is characterized by structural rigidity and resistance to changes of shape or volume, unlike a liquid, a solid object does not flow to take on the shape of its container, nor does it expand to fill the entire volume available to it like a gas does. The atoms in a solid are tightly bound to other, either in a regular geometric lattice or irregularly. The branch of physics deals with solids is called solid-state physics. Materials science is concerned with the physical and chemical properties of solids. Solid-state chemistry is concerned with the synthesis of novel materials, as well as the science of identification. The atoms, molecules or ions which make up solids may be arranged in a repeating pattern. Materials whose constituents are arranged in a regular pattern are known as crystals, in some cases, the regular ordering can continue unbroken over a large scale, for example diamonds, where each diamond is a single crystal. Almost all common metals, and many ceramics, are polycrystalline, in other materials, there is no long-range order in the position of the atoms. These solids are known as amorphous solids, examples include polystyrene, whether a solid is crystalline or amorphous depends on the material involved, and the conditions in which it was formed. Solids which are formed by slow cooling will tend to be crystalline, likewise, the specific crystal structure adopted by a crystalline solid depends on the material involved and on how it was formed. While many common objects, such as an ice cube or a coin, are chemically identical throughout, for example, a typical rock is an aggregate of several different minerals and mineraloids, with no specific chemical composition. Wood is an organic material consisting primarily of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of organic lignin. In materials science, composites of more than one constituent material can be designed to have desired properties, the forces between the atoms in a solid can take a variety of forms. For example, a crystal of sodium chloride is made up of sodium and chlorine. In diamond or silicon, the atoms share electrons and form covalent bonds, in metals, electrons are shared in metallic bonding. Some solids, particularly most organic compounds, are together with van der Waals forces resulting from the polarization of the electronic charge cloud on each molecule. The dissimilarities between the types of solid result from the differences between their bonding, metals typically are strong, dense, and good conductors of both electricity and heat
5.
Gravity
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Gravity, or gravitation, is a natural phenomenon by which all things with mass are brought toward one another, including planets, stars and galaxies. Since energy and mass are equivalent, all forms of energy, including light, on Earth, gravity gives weight to physical objects and causes the ocean tides. Gravity has a range, although its effects become increasingly weaker on farther objects. The most extreme example of this curvature of spacetime is a hole, from which nothing can escape once past its event horizon. More gravity results in time dilation, where time lapses more slowly at a lower gravitational potential. Gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental interactions of nature, the gravitational attraction is approximately 1038 times weaker than the strong force,1036 times weaker than the electromagnetic force and 1029 times weaker than the weak force. As a consequence, gravity has an influence on the behavior of subatomic particles. On the other hand, gravity is the dominant interaction at the macroscopic scale, for this reason, in part, pursuit of a theory of everything, the merging of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics into quantum gravity, has become an area of research. While the modern European thinkers are credited with development of gravitational theory, some of the earliest descriptions came from early mathematician-astronomers, such as Aryabhata, who had identified the force of gravity to explain why objects do not fall out when the Earth rotates. Later, the works of Brahmagupta referred to the presence of force, described it as an attractive force. Modern work on gravitational theory began with the work of Galileo Galilei in the late 16th and this was a major departure from Aristotles belief that heavier objects have a higher gravitational acceleration. Galileo postulated air resistance as the reason that objects with less mass may fall slower in an atmosphere, galileos work set the stage for the formulation of Newtons theory of gravity. In 1687, English mathematician Sir Isaac Newton published Principia, which hypothesizes the inverse-square law of universal gravitation. Newtons theory enjoyed its greatest success when it was used to predict the existence of Neptune based on motions of Uranus that could not be accounted for by the actions of the other planets. Calculations by both John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier predicted the position of the planet. A discrepancy in Mercurys orbit pointed out flaws in Newtons theory, the issue was resolved in 1915 by Albert Einsteins new theory of general relativity, which accounted for the small discrepancy in Mercurys orbit. The simplest way to test the equivalence principle is to drop two objects of different masses or compositions in a vacuum and see whether they hit the ground at the same time. Such experiments demonstrate that all objects fall at the rate when other forces are negligible
6.
Nitrogen
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Nitrogen is a chemical element with symbol N and atomic number 7. It was first discovered and isolated by Scottish physician Daniel Rutherford in 1772, although Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Henry Cavendish had independently done so at about the same time, Rutherford is generally accorded the credit because his work was published first. Nitrogen is the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, the name comes from the Greek πνίγειν to choke, directly referencing nitrogens asphyxiating properties. It is an element in the universe, estimated at about seventh in total abundance in the Milky Way. At standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dinitrogen, a colourless and odorless diatomic gas with the formula N2, dinitrogen forms about 78% of Earths atmosphere, making it the most abundant uncombined element. Nitrogen occurs in all organisms, primarily in amino acids, in the nucleic acids, the human body contains about 3% nitrogen by mass, the fourth most abundant element in the body after oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. The nitrogen cycle describes movement of the element from the air, into the biosphere and organic compounds, many industrially important compounds, such as ammonia, nitric acid, organic nitrates, and cyanides, contain nitrogen. The extremely strong bond in elemental nitrogen, the second strongest bond in any diatomic molecule. Synthetically produced ammonia and nitrates are key industrial fertilisers, and fertiliser nitrates are key pollutants in the eutrophication of water systems. Apart from its use in fertilisers and energy-stores, nitrogen is a constituent of organic compounds as diverse as Kevlar used in high-strength fabric, Nitrogen is a constituent of every major pharmacological drug class, including antibiotics. Many notable nitrogen-containing drugs, such as the caffeine and morphine or the synthetic amphetamines. Nitrogen compounds have a long history, ammonium chloride having been known to Herodotus. They were well known by the Middle Ages, alchemists knew nitric acid as aqua fortis, as well as other nitrogen compounds such as ammonium salts and nitrate salts. The mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids was known as aqua regia, celebrated for its ability to dissolve gold, the discovery of nitrogen is attributed to the Scottish physician Daniel Rutherford in 1772, who called it noxious air. Though he did not recognise it as a different chemical substance, he clearly distinguished it from Joseph Blacks fixed air. The fact that there was a component of air that does not support combustion was clear to Rutherford, Nitrogen was also studied at about the same time by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Henry Cavendish, and Joseph Priestley, who referred to it as burnt air or phlogisticated air. Nitrogen gas was inert enough that Antoine Lavoisier referred to it as air or azote, from the Greek word άζωτικός. In an atmosphere of nitrogen, animals died and flames were extinguished
7.
Oxygen
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Oxygen is a chemical element with symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the group on the periodic table and is a highly reactive nonmetal. By mass, oxygen is the third-most abundant element in the universe, after hydrogen, at standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a colorless and odorless diatomic gas with the formula O2. This is an important part of the atmosphere and diatomic oxygen gas constitutes 20. 8% of the Earths atmosphere, additionally, as oxides the element makes up almost half of the Earths crust. Most of the mass of living organisms is oxygen as a component of water, conversely, oxygen is continuously replenished by photosynthesis, which uses the energy of sunlight to produce oxygen from water and carbon dioxide. Oxygen is too reactive to remain a free element in air without being continuously replenished by the photosynthetic action of living organisms. Another form of oxygen, ozone, strongly absorbs ultraviolet UVB radiation, but ozone is a pollutant near the surface where it is a by-product of smog. At low earth orbit altitudes, sufficient atomic oxygen is present to cause corrosion of spacecraft, the name oxygen was coined in 1777 by Antoine Lavoisier, whose experiments with oxygen helped to discredit the then-popular phlogiston theory of combustion and corrosion. One of the first known experiments on the relationship between combustion and air was conducted by the 2nd century BCE Greek writer on mechanics, Philo of Byzantium. In his work Pneumatica, Philo observed that inverting a vessel over a burning candle, Philo incorrectly surmised that parts of the air in the vessel were converted into the classical element fire and thus were able to escape through pores in the glass. Many centuries later Leonardo da Vinci built on Philos work by observing that a portion of air is consumed during combustion and respiration, Oxygen was discovered by the Polish alchemist Sendivogius, who considered it the philosophers stone. In the late 17th century, Robert Boyle proved that air is necessary for combustion, English chemist John Mayow refined this work by showing that fire requires only a part of air that he called spiritus nitroaereus. From this he surmised that nitroaereus is consumed in both respiration and combustion, Mayow observed that antimony increased in weight when heated, and inferred that the nitroaereus must have combined with it. Accounts of these and other experiments and ideas were published in 1668 in his work Tractatus duo in the tract De respiratione. Robert Hooke, Ole Borch, Mikhail Lomonosov, and Pierre Bayen all produced oxygen in experiments in the 17th and the 18th century but none of them recognized it as a chemical element. This may have been in part due to the prevalence of the philosophy of combustion and corrosion called the phlogiston theory, which was then the favored explanation of those processes. Established in 1667 by the German alchemist J. J. Becher, one part, called phlogiston, was given off when the substance containing it was burned, while the dephlogisticated part was thought to be its true form, or calx. The fact that a substance like wood gains overall weight in burning was hidden by the buoyancy of the combustion products
8.
Argon
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Argon is a chemical element with symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in group 18 of the table and is a noble gas. Argon is the third-most abundant gas in the Earths atmosphere, at 0. 934% and it is more than twice as abundant as water vapor,23 times as abundant as carbon dioxide, and more than 500 times as abundant as neon. Argon is the most abundant noble gas in Earths crust, comprising 0. 00015% of the crust, nearly all of the argon in Earths atmosphere is radiogenic argon-40, derived from the decay of potassium-40 in the Earths crust. In the universe, argon-36 is by far the most common argon isotope, the name argon is derived from the Greek word ἀργόν, neuter singular form of ἀργός meaning lazy or inactive, as a reference to the fact that the element undergoes almost no chemical reactions. The complete octet in the atomic shell makes argon stable. Its triple point temperature of 83.8058 K is a fixed point in the International Temperature Scale of 1990. Argon is produced industrially by the distillation of liquid air. Argon is also used in incandescent, fluorescent lighting, and other gas-discharge tubes, Argon makes a distinctive blue-green gas laser. Argon is also used in fluorescent glow starters, Argon has approximately the same solubility in water as oxygen and is 2.5 times more soluble in water than nitrogen. Argon is colorless, odorless, nonflammable and nontoxic as a solid, liquid or gas, Argon is chemically inert under most conditions and forms no confirmed stable compounds at room temperature. Although argon is a gas, it can form some compounds under extreme conditions. Argon fluorohydride, a compound of argon with fluorine and hydrogen that is stable below 17 K, has been demonstrated. Although the neutral ground-state chemical compounds of argon are presently limited to HArF, ions, such as ArH+, and excited-state complexes, such as ArF, have been demonstrated. Theoretical calculation predicts several more argon compounds that should be stable but have not yet been synthesized, Argon was suspected to be a component of air by Henry Cavendish in 1785. Argon was first isolated from air in 1894 by Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay at University College London by removing oxygen, carbon dioxide, water and they had determined that nitrogen produced from chemical compounds was 0. 5% lighter than nitrogen from the atmosphere. The difference was slight, but it was important enough to attract their attention for many months and they concluded that there was another gas in the air mixed in with the nitrogen. Argon was also encountered in 1882 through independent research of H. F. Newall, each observed new lines in the color spectrum of air that did not match known elements
9.
Lightning
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Lightning is a sudden electrostatic discharge that occurs during a thunder storm. This discharge occurs between electrically charged regions of a cloud, between two clouds, or between a cloud and the ground. The charged regions in the atmosphere temporarily equalize themselves through this discharge referred to as an if it hits an object on the ground. Lightning causes light in the form of plasma, and sound in the form of thunder, Lightning may be seen and not heard when it occurs at a distance too great for the sound to carry as far as the light from the strike or flash. This article incorporates public domain material from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration document Understanding Lightning, the details of the charging process are still being studied by scientists, but there is general agreement on some of the basic concepts of thunderstorm electrification. The main charging area in a thunderstorm occurs in the part of the storm where air is moving upward rapidly and temperatures range from -15 to -25 Celsius. At that place, the combination of temperature and rapid upward air movement produces a mixture of super-cooled cloud droplets, small ice crystals, the updraft carries the super-cooled cloud droplets and very small ice crystals upward. At the same time, the graupel, which is larger and denser. The differences in the movement of the precipitation cause collisions to occur, when the rising ice crystals collide with graupel, the ice crystals become positively charged and the graupel becomes negatively charged. The updraft carries the positively charged ice crystals upward toward the top of the storm cloud, the larger and denser graupel is either suspended in the middle of the thunderstorm cloud or falls toward the lower part of the storm. The result is that the part of the thunderstorm cloud becomes positively charged while the middle to lower part of the thunderstorm cloud becomes negatively charged. This part of the cloud is called the anvil. While this is the charging process for the thunderstorm cloud. In addition, there is a small but important positive charge buildup near the bottom of the cloud due to the precipitation. Many factors affect the frequency, distribution, strength and physical properties of a lightning flash in a particular region of the world. These factors include ground elevation, latitude, prevailing wind currents, relative humidity, proximity to warm and cold bodies of water, to a certain degree, the ratio between IC, CC and CG lightning may also vary by season in middle latitudes. Lightnings relative unpredictability limits a complete explanation of how or why it occurs, the actual discharge is the final stage of a very complex process. At its peak, a thunderstorm produces three or more strikes to the Earth per minute
